Abort and Discard Analytics

One of the core properties of Kanban is to measure and manage the flow. The success of flow is greatly influenced by the movement of the work, which needs to be fast and smooth. But, we often fail to achieve that momentum due to the waste generated by the system.

In a typical Kanban scenario, a waste is created when the Kanban cards were added to the board, moved along the Kanban value stream, but discarded out of board without completing the lifecycle.

So, in an Upstream Kanban, where you typically manage and evaluate ideas or requests before it reaches the commitment point, any card gets deleted is termed as Discarded. When a card after being evaluated and committed at the planning stage moves to the actual execution board, or the Downstream Kanban, and then gets deleted, it is referred as Abort.

Both the actions, Discard and Abort, generate waste in the effort, time or system liquidity, which can be captured and analyzed using the Discard and Abort Analytics.

Discard Analytics

To access the Discard Analytics from the Kanban board, go to Board Menu and then Analytics. On the Analytics page, navigate to the Discard Analytics widget.

Settings Filter for Discard Analytics

On the Discard Analytics wizard, click the Filter icon. Set the filter options:

Time Period: Snapshot of time (Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, and Yearly) for the discarded cards to be rolled on the X axis of the chart.

Start and End Date: Select both these dates from the calendar to limit the scope of data.

Card Type: Select the required attribute values based on which you want to plot the chart.

Lane: Select the lanes from the list box for which you want to plot the chart.

Start and End Column: Select the exact stage for which you want to generate by defining the Start column and End column.

Plot Chart By: Render your chart based on the Discard Rate, which shows the number of cards discarded. You can also select the Include completed cards check box to compare the discard rate as against the cards that have successfully moved beyond the Upstream column or been archived.

Alternatively, you can also select the Reason Code to render the bar chart based on various Reason Codes used while discarding cards.

Interpreting Discard Analytics

The Discard Analytics is interpreted both in Discard Rate and Reason Code format.
The following diagram by Discard Rate shows the bar chart based on the number of discarded cards against the completed cards. The gray bar shows the completed cards, whereas green and orange colors represent the number of discarded cards at two different upstream columns.

The following diagram of Discard Analysis by Reason Code shows the distribution of cards based on the Reason Code being chosen while discarding cards at the upstream column.

Abort Analytics

To access the Abort Analytics from the Kanban board, go to Board Menu and then Analytics. On the Analytics page, navigate to Abort Analytics.

Settings Filter for Abort Analytics

On the Abort Analytics wizard, click the Filter icon. Set the filter options:

Time Period: Snapshot of time (Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, and Yearly) for the aborted cards to be rolled on the X axis of the chart.

Start and End Date: Select both these dates from the calendar to limit the scope of data.

Card Type: Select the required attribute values based on which you want to plot the chart.

Lane: Select the lanes from the list box for which you want to plot the chart.

Start and End Column: Select the exact stage for which you want to generate by defining the Start column and End column.

Plot Chart By: Render your chart based on the following parameters:

o Abort Rate, which shows the number of cards aborted. You can also select the Include completed cards check box to compare the abort rate against the cards that have successfully been completed and archived in the Downstream columns.
o You can also select the Reason Code to render the bar chart based on various Reason Codes used while aborting cards.
o The Abort chart by Effort indicates the (work and wait) time spent on those cards before being aborted.
Once you select the Effort, you need to set the representation of it in Cycle Time (work and wait time) or To-Do (sub-tasks of the aborted cards).

Interpreting Abort Analytics

The following diagram shows the Abort Rate. The stacked bar displays the number of cards aborted at various stages of the development during the selected time range.

The following diagram shows the Abort Analytics by Reason Code. The stacked bar displays the number of cards aborted at various stages of the development, where each color on the bar represents a reason code.

The following diagram plots the Abort analytics by effort, where colors on the bar represent work time and wait time.